Time for the latest in my ongoing collaboration with Green Options, this is last weeks, read the newest here.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article entitled ‘Wind Jammers,” the Journal manages to take both sides of the Cape Wind issue, without really taking either, while at the same time firmly sticking their foot into their mouths. If you are not familiar with Cape Wind (or I should say the war over Cape Wind), here is a brief update. A company wants to install a big wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod; they say it will produce 75% of the areas power. It has passed every major environmental and government review process so far. Some very rich opponents of the wind farm claim it will ruin the aesthetic value of the cape (their view), and some fisherman think it might interfere with fishing. If built, it will be America’s first offshore wind farm. Even the Daily Show weighed in on the project. (warning: highly funny)

I have lived in the trenches of this battle for the last four years, and the “war” has been going on for the last 6 years. Getting a large renewable energy project built in the backyard of some of the nation’s richest, and most politically-connected people, is not an easy task. The Wall Street Journal (supposedly one of the nation’s best newspapers) has some interesting, and in my opinion foolish, things to say about the issue.

“But advocates often tout renewable energy not for its economics, but because it’s virtuous. Many of those who are willing to impose the costs of various environmental schemes on other Americans based on “ideals” suddenly have started looking more closely at the tradeoffs when something they hold dear would have to be sacrificed, like a nice view. Wind energy is never going to be anything but a bit player in meeting the world’s energy needs. The Nantucket tempest is useful mainly as a real-world test of whether some of the world’s most privileged liberals wear their ideals all the time, or only when it suits them.”

That’s a lot to chew on so lets break it down.

“Renewable energy is only about virtue and not money”

Advocates of renewable energy certainly look at the economic impacts of green energy projects. Wind farms often cost hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars. No investor in their right mind would ever build one if it wasn’t going to make them money. You might say “Aha! But renewable energy gets subsides from the government to make it profitable.” I would respond, “So do big oil, gas, and coal companies, even though they are making hundreds of billions of dollars in profits each year (meaning they don’t need the subsides), whereas renewable energy gets far less in subsides, and is still the fasted growing market in the energy sector.” When you factor in the massive economic damage that will be caused by continuing to burn fossil fuels (global warming, pollution, destruction of the environment to get them, etc), you will see that coal, oil, and gas are really the options with the large price tag.

“Liberals like renewable energy, and are hypocrites because they don’t want it near their home”

It is true: many progressive people do like renewable energy. It is also true that Ted Kennedy and Robert Kennedy are against the Cape Wind project because they don’t want to have to look at it from their sprawling oceanside mansion. But it is also true that the opponents of Cape Wind have been funded heavily by people with ties to the oil, gas and coal industries, and by many a staunch Republican. The Kennedy opposition to Cape Wind is a shameful example of hypocrisy; Robert Kennedy in particular is a long-time fighter against pollution, and a supporter of renewable energy in the past.

The statement overlooks the heavy opposition from wealthy oil/coal/gas magnates that have also opposed the project. The article didn’t mention that this is yet another example of big carbon trying to keep its strangle hold on the energy market by crushing any and all new comers. Instead, it tried to focus on the hypocrisy of a couple of liberals. Some of the most conservative people think renewable energy is a good idea because it will allow us to become free of Middle East oil, thus allowing us more choices in our foreign policy. In only focusing on what I will readily admit is hypocrisy of a few, it ignores the equally shameful actions of the rest.

So we know that rich Democrats, and rich Republicans, don’t want the project, but what do the majority of the people who live in the area think? A recent study showed that over 80% of Massachusetts residents are in favor of the project, and that 58% of Cape and Islands residents (the people closest to the project) support it. So in both cases, strong majorities of the people who will actually benefit from the project are for it.

“Wind power sucks, and will only ever be a bit player in the industry”

I felt this was the most shocking statement of all in the entire article. For one, the wind industry is growing at record speed worldwide. AWEA, the American Wind Energy Association, puts American wind industry growth at a staggering 27% in 2006, and an estimated 26% growth this year. This rapid growth is expected to continue: this year alone, over 4 billion dollars were invested in just the American wind industry. Similar growth is happening worldwide. For examples of what wind power can do, look to some European countries: Denmark for instance gets 15% of its power from renewable energy. German, Portugal (they are trying for 45% by 2010!), and the other European nations are also getting significat portions of their energy from renewable sources, much of it wind power.

With the specter of global warming on the horizon, the problems that “oil diplomacy” has caused in our relationships with other parts of the world, the diminishing supplies of cheap oil, the pollution caused by burning fossil fuels, and the high cost (money, environmental and regrettably lives) of securing these fuels, renewable energy not only makes sense, but it seems like the only option. Wind alone will not solve our problems, and neither will one wind farm. There is no silver bullet that will solve our climate problems. There is, however, silver buckshot: wind power, combined with solar and other renewable energy technologies, efficiency, and shifting the way we live our lives, can.